Eli was very glad to see us, and wanted us to stay while he shooed these horse from Florida. One of them was a chestnut gelding named Dan, he was a large horse and very spirited.
The little I know about horses -
It is commonly believed that the great war-horses, also called destriers, were developed during the Middle Ages to support the great weight of the armored knight. Actually, a good suit of armor was not over 70 pounds in weight; and therefore, the horse would only be expected to carry some 250 to 300 pounds. The real reason large horses were useful was because their weight gave greater force to the impact of the knight's lance, both in warfare and in the tournament. A destrier weighed twice as much as a conventional riding horse; and when the knight struck a conventionally mounted opponent, the impact could be devastating. The destrier was sometimes shod with sharp nail heads protruding so that he could trample foot-soldiers in his path. The destrier was a very potent weapon, and yet his descendants are the mild mannered and docile work horses of today who put their strength to less brutal use.
The Palfrey: Everyday Ambler
The destrier was the horse of battle, but would not have proved a comfortable mount for the " off
duty" knight. Instead, the knight rode the palfrey, a short-legged, long-bodied horse which had a
gentle amble for a gait. The smooth ride afforded by the palfrey also made it a suitable mount for the
wounded or aged who might have difficulty mounting and riding a taller horse.
The Courser: Hot Blooded Speedster
While the destrier and palfrey excelled in power and comfort, respectively, they were not fast horses.
The need for a fast carrier of messages between armies or kingdoms, gave rise to the courser, the
ancestor of the race horse. Coursers were strong, lean horses which probably had "hot" (Turkish, Arabian, or Barb) blood in their veins. A principal source of coursers was the kingdom of Naples.
The Neapolitans acquired horses from Africa and bred them to European stock. The result was an extremely fast horse sought by kings from as far away as England who wanted to add speed to their stables.
In my opinion Dan was a Courser, and attempts to shoe him in Florida had only led to him being shod on the front two, and that was in four attempts. Eli had no trouble at all, he spoke softly to the horse and would tap the leg he wanted him to lift. He said he could tell the horse was a little sore in the back legs and said if he tried to force Dan's leg higher he would resist. The lady who brought him said that was putting it mildly. She said Dan would stomp and snort and prance to the side, not letting anyone touch his back legs. She couldn't believe how easy he was for Eli.
The owner said Dan had been mistreated by his previous owner, she said that was one reason she had bought Dan, she wanted to get him away from the abuser.
It reminded me of something Willis had told me about a horses memory, if they have a bad experience with something or someone it can affect them for life. With the large draft horses Willis works with, he said that at auctions, one questions the Amish ask is if they were ever part of a runaway accident. These incidents even if they don't seriously injure can cause psyche damage to the horses. Which can lead to other incidents.
Willis Miller is a dairy farmer from the Mount Hope area, he had a bad experience about 10 years ago, while mowing he caught a pipe from his natural gas well. The hissing gas wasn't to unnerving for his team, they were his main pull team "Chief" and "Stormy" so he drove them back to the barn to get a wrench to shut off the gas. He drove the team back out to the well and parked them what he thought was a safe distance from the natural gas well.
The well had been installed on their property years ago during the energy crisis of the 70's and with prices falling had been sold to his father by the natural gas company that had drilled it, they figured it was cheaper than capping it.
Unfortunately Willis had never had to shut it off and was not sure which valve to turn. He actually unscrewed the well cap which blew with such force it was never found.
Willis said he could have easily been killed. He described it as a screaming rocket engine that proved too much for even a highly trained team. The team bolted for the barn which was quite a distance away, but the mower caught on the corn crib and was torn loose. Stormy hit her head on a corner of the crib, tore the section off but turned the two towards the highway. When the mower came loose the horses were separated and both ran headlong up hwy 241.
That is a heavily traveled road, but fortunately neither of these big Belgians hit a vehicle. Willis' wife Kathy heard the noise and saw the team bolting for home, she ran from the house chasing them and wondering what she would do if she caught one.
Eventually a tourist passerby caught one, thankfully he was German and the horse could understand him. Kathy managed to corral the other, they seemed no worse for wear.
They no longer have Chief, but Willis says Stormy is still jumpy to this day and doesn't like loud popping sounds, nearly 10 years later but still scarred from the event.
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